An Insider’s Look: Driving Change in an Ecosystem for Nonprofits

Today’s nonprofits are not only changing, but they’re evolving in ways much different from what we’ve known in the past. Alas, the nonprofit sector is finally catching up with the for-profit sector in that nonprofits are finally recognizing the importance and need for technology.

But looking out into the vast sea of existing technology companies and those that are coming into fruition, nonprofits cannot just close their eyes and “Eenie Meenie Minie Mo” it. There are a few factors to be considered:

What type of technology does the nonprofit need?

Which features complement the nonprofit’s need the most?

Will the technology partner understand the nonprofit’s mission—and will they believe in it?

One of the biggest issues that nonprofits face when partnering with vendors is that there is a lack of understanding and partnership between one another. In an exclusive interview with NonProfit PRO, Michael Farb, CEO of Neon One, explains the crucial factors in building a healthy nonprofit ecosystem.

Creating a Nonprofit Ecosystem

Farb previously served as a board member of BUILD, a leading education-based nonprofit that leverages entrepreneurship to help underserved youth. There, he witnessed first-hand the challenges nonprofits face through having to utilize multiple technology partners for different fundraising and donor management activities.

Through his experience, he believed that there had to be a better way of partnering with technology companies—by bringing them together to better serve their clients—which led him to take on the challenge of building a nonprofit ecosystem.

Before Farb joined the Neon One team, he led Stack Sports to become the global leader in technology for athletic organization and advancement. There, he led the go-to-market strategy to combine the best technology companies in the space and build a global leader that address millions of athletes, teams and organizations. Though athletics and nonprofit are completely different markets, they still face similar challenges.

“… the main one being the need for organizations to use multiple platforms that don’t communicate in the best way. By putting some of the best companies, technology offerings and, most importantly, teams together, we were able to drive more change for the industry, and we think we can do it again in this ecosystem,” Farb said.

The footprint that Neon One creates in the nonprofit space, according to Farb, is that Neon One is not a suite of products, but a solution engine. The three top challenges that nonprofits face are:

Not enough time to focus on their mission.

The data lives in multiple silos.

They have multiple technology systems that do not communicate well.

“Neon One is a holistic approach to solving these and other fundraising and operational pain points in the nonprofit sector with end-to-end technology solutions. We’re building an ecosystem that helps organizations save time, consolidate data and fundraise more effectively,” he said.

The Addition of CiviCore

CiviCore is an innovative technology company that specializes in giving events and client and case management software solutions for nonprofits. To date, the company has helped raise over $500 million for 27,000 nonprofits. Earlier today, Neon One announced in a press release that it has added CiviCore to its ecosystem for nonprofits. Together Neon One and CiviCore have helped over 3,500 nonprofits raise over $9 billion.

“[CiviCore’s] cutting-edge case management features are a game changer for organizations that need help managing and establishing services for clients. Beyond their product strength, the CiviCore team’s mission and values really align with Neon One. We’re excited to have them on board,” Farb said.

The addition of CiviCore will help Neon One’s mission of helping to solve the nonprofit sector’s need to more efficient and cost-effective end-to-end technology solutions to help increase productivity and drive giving. Through Neon One’s ecosystem, the team is dedicated to help nonprofit reach their philanthropic goals and empower them to do more good.

“Giving is a major part of the culture at Neon One. Every year we take on multiple service projects in the community as a part of our NeonCares initiative and work together as a team to truly do ‘more good.’ We talk about doing good a lot, and it’s really important to me that we exemplify our mission,” he said.